Hyde, the London Borough of Bromley, Beehive Affordable Homes and Macquarie Asset Management have completed a transaction that delivers 50 affordable homes for rent in south-east London.
The properties, which Beehive acquired from Hyde with financing provided by Macquarie, are a mixture of sizes and are located across the London Borough of Bromley and the surrounding areas. The London Borough of Bromley has agreed to rent the properties from Beehive on a long-term basis to help meet local affordable housing needs with an option to acquire them for £1 at the end of the agreement.
Speaking of the sale of the homes to Beehive, Guy Slocombe, Chief Investment Officer at the Hyde Group said: "We had identified these homes as suitable for sale some time ago and had recently completed works to all of them to bring them up to a higher standard. The main thing for us is that these homes are earmarked for people who were, until recently, in temporary accommodation. They now have a genuinely affordable, long-term home, and the fact that they can move in during the global pandemic makes it that much more special.
"We select homes for sale based on a number of different factors and reinvest the proceeds into building more affordable homes that the south-east desperately needs."
Beehive was set up by Jonathan Bunt and Chris Ashcroft to make use of their respective backgrounds in local government, housing, banking and markets to help bridge the gap between housing associations who are looking to sell some of their homes and the growing demand from local authorities to house people in long-term, affordable accommodation.
Beehive Director, Jonathan Bunt said: "We are really happy to use our expertise in housing and finance to ensure that these homes stay in the wider affordable housing sector. We have been able to deliver this portfolio of homes at genuinely affordable rates for Bromley residents whilst also paying Hyde a fair price for their homes. This win-win outcome means Hyde can reinvest into new affordable schemes which are so desperately needed. Our ambition is to help to enable an overall net increase in affordable homes."
Beehive partnered with Macquarie Asset Management's Private Credit team to facilitate the innovative transaction, with Macquarie investing on behalf of its institutional clients to provide a flexible, long term financing package. Beehive and Macquarie intend to replicate the model across the country, working closely with local authorities to help meet their affordable housing needs.
Gareth Edwards, Senior Vice President at Macquarie, said: "We are delighted to have played a key role in this important transaction, demonstrating the alternative funding models available to local authorities to help finance their social infrastructure investment needs. This commitment underlines our desire to finance the UK affordable housing sector and local authorities, with approximately £700 million invested in these sectors on behalf of our clients over the past five years."
Hyde were advised by Trowers & Hamlin, Macquarie by Addleshaw Goddard and Beehive by K&L Gates.
